It seems an odd thing to write, given that 2006's biggest-selling album is Snow Patrol's Eyes Open - a record so obvious that even an alien from a planet where rock music did not exist could have a stab at working out what it was going to do next - but this year entirely unprecedented things kept happening.

We were faced with a world of rock and pop that regularly appeared to have spun off its axis: the bloke out of the Ordinary Boys suddenly beaming from every other cover of OK!; a metal band in Slipknot-style masks won Eurovision; and BBC 6 Music's cuddly soul show presenter, Craig Charles, was suspended for smoking crack. So it is perhaps unsurprising that the record-buying public gravitated to music that was at best wilfully prosaic - The Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen's stark documentary songwriting - and at worst crushingly predictable. What sold was the ersatz alt-rock of The Fratellis and The Kooks (cruelly but accurately dubbed "ITV indie" by one commentator), The Feeling's unironic soft rock, the massed ranks of craven sub-Coldplay stadium-fillers and middle-of-the-road singer-songwriters.

But as ever, the most exciting things that happened were the most unexpected. Despite its "explicit lyrics" sticker, Amy Winehouse's 2003 debut album seemed the epitome of tastefully jazzy background music (it was advertised in the pages of Living Etc, like aural soft furnishings). So it was startling to hear her swaggering return with the 60s soul-inspired Back To Black and accompanying single Rehab, a thrillingly effective two fingers to solipsistic celebrity culture.

With most of the major American urban producers intent on proving they would work with anyone who stumped up the cash, the usual chart-slaying hip-hop or R&B single of the year was not forthcoming. In its place, there was an unusual one: Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, a remarkable, eerie meditation on mental illness performed by two men who, in at least one photograph, dressed in Clockwork Orange makeup and vast nappies.

The year ended with the happy news that Muse would be the first band to perform at the new Wembley Stadium. Not something anyone would have predicted when they emerged six years ago in Radiohead's shadow, but that now seems perfectly fitting: if you wanted a rock album that offered skyscraping ambition and could genuinely only have been made in 2006, not at any point in the past, Black Holes and Revelations was it.

Best - but alas false - rumour of the year: That Keane's Priory-bound frontman Tom Chaplin was entering rehab to be treated for an addiction to port, apparently mischeviously started by a member of Kasabian.

Best excuse for getting out of press commitments: Matt Bellamy of Muse's announcement that he had heard a meteor was heading for America and that he must thus leave the country immediately.

Quote of the year: Noel Gallagher on his brother's non-appearance at an awards ceremony: "He's gone to the zoo.

The monkeys are bringing their families along to have a look at him."

· What the artists say ...

Gorillaz: Cartoon band

Murdoc: I had mixed feelings watching the Gorillaz tribute act recreate our Demon Days album at the Apollo in Harlem. On the upside, you're watching an incredible lineup, plus a choir, orchestra and fireworks. But we were in the audience, and that felt like being Thin Lizzy and watching Twin Lizzy steal your glory. Or AC/DC being blown away by AB/CD. Or watching Earth, Wind for Hire.

2D: I really enjoyed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Show Your Bones album. If Tim Burton drew a band, it would look like them.

Murdoc: Whitesnake's album, In the Shadow of the Blues. Best thing this decade. David Coverdale? Genius.

Mr Lordi, Eurovision winner

Our audience is much bigger, but we're still doing the same thing. The music is the same, the monsters are the same, but everything else has been multiplied by 10. To be honest, the highlight of that night in Athens was at about 5am, when I finally got home and took my mask off.

I don't have a competitive mind. When they were counting up the points, the rest of the bands were very excited, but I was like, "OK, this is cool".

Will Eurovision ever be the same? We'll see. It will still have ballads and pretty girls looking like Barbie and ethnic dance numbers, but maybe there will be more of a rock flavour. One thing is for sure, Finland will never be the same.Interviews: Paul Arendt